Governor Lee “Very Interested” In Putting Mental Health Professionals In Every Tennessee Public School
Image Credit: Governor Bill Lee / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
After a recent budget hearing, Governor Bill Lee said he was “very interested” in exploring the idea of having a mental health professional in every public school in Tennessee.
The cost to fully fund such a program would be around $120 million.
Tennessee Department for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Commissioner Marie Williams said during the budget meeting with the governor’s team that there are currently 333 behavioral health liaisons in schools. Putting a mental health professional in every school would increase that number to 1,900.
$28 million has been spent so far in state and federal funds and Williams is asking for $8 million more this year to add 114 more liaisons. She says this will provide access to mental health services for 24,000 more Tennessee students.
During the meeting, Williams said that having access to these services improves student performance while reducing truancy and the need for discipline.
According to the 2023 State of Mental Health in America report, Tennessee scores extremely low in terms of youth mental health.
While not blaming any specific situation, Williams reported that Tennessee children are increasingly struggling with such issues as anxiety, depression and substance abuse.
According to Williams, 61,000 children up to age 18 are struggling with substance abuse, and approximately 96,000 are dealing with severe emotional disturbance.
Different from school guidance counselors, behavioral health liaisons focus more specifically on students dealing with emotional challenges.
Lee made no promises about fully funding the initiative but was open to putting more money towards it depending on its effectiveness.
On Monday, the board for the state’s $250 million trust fund for mental health approved a $6 million payout for the upcoming fiscal year which will go to the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.
The breakdown of recurring and non-recurring funds will be decided upon during the upcoming budget process but the money can only be used for K-12 students within the state.
The department’s plans for the funding include student mental health intervention grants, family mental health services, and training for school staff.
The fund was established after lawmakers passed legislation in 2021. In addition to the original $225 million endowment, $25 million was earmarked for immediate use for K-12 mental health programs.
Critics say there has been little impact on the state’s students since the fund was created.
In addition to what the state of Tennessee is planning to do to improve student mental health, we reported earlier this year on the federal plan to put more than three hundred mental health providers in public schools in rural Tennessee over the next five years.
Project RAISE, which stands for Rural Access to Interventions in School Environments, is funded by nearly $14 million in federal grants and is part of President Biden’s “Investing in America” agenda.
In order to increase mental health provider retention in rural districts by 15%, the initiative creates internship opportunities within rural school districts.
Over the next five years, the grant will fund recruitment and retention of three hundred plus providers in forty districts across the state in partnership with Tennessee universities.
Up to seventy interns were planned to be put into the areas of school psychology, school counseling, and school social work in rural schools during the 2023-2024 school year.
In addition to funds for relocation for out-of-state applicants, interns willing to stay in Tennessee and work in a state school for two years after their internship will receive stipends varying in range from $15 thousand a year for a school social worker up to $40 thousand a year for a school psychologist.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
This would be like putting drug dealers in every school except these drug dealers will have authority and status to convince parents and administrative personnel to convince.
Anxiety? Depression? Substance abuse?
Where we need mental health is our political class, who are driving everyone else nuts.
Seriously!
They tell Blacks to beat up Whites, defund police, tell boys and girls to switch sexes, over run the coutnry with illegals, borrow, spend and inflate money and have so far lost 3 wars in 2 years: Afghanistan, Ukraine and most likley Israel but then decide that they ahve to fight “anti-Semtism”.
So, it isn’t me.
Anyone could have seen Ukraine and Gaza coming, but not the people who are actually responsible for deaing with it, or anything else.
Losers, one and alll!
When mental deficients have power, they make life miserbale for everyone and the party apparati guarantee more of the same which goes back to krank big donors proving once again that the only thing that pays better than having no brains is having no class.
It is becoming clear that Russia and China will have to save the world from us and most of the world already agrees. Look how fast everything turned around on us in Gaza.
These people, both parties, are making the whole world sick. So, it isn’t just us.
You may not like Putin but, listen to him, he makes sense.
None of our politicians make sense.
How can we make sense of a country that doesn’t make sense to begin with?
A good dose of Parental and school discipline and respect for themselves and others would go a long way and know there is a penalty for bad behavior along with the rest of society. Not some therapist pushing drugs to do the parents job. And the ones that do need help where are they going to go?? Tenn. has closed down all or most mental health facilities in the state in past years.
Hey Lee, you want mental health workers? Keep them in your office! SAKOVKT is right! Politicians need mental health more than anyone else. You and yours are destroying this state.
I heard something about you once upon a time, it must have been a fairy tale more likely a Brothers Grimm tale, that you were a Christian conservative. I guess your old friends must be liars.
I was 1 class shy of getting my maters in mental health. I was dismissed for my conservative views that abortion is taking a human life, that it is wrong to say that all white people are racist, that homosexuality is not immutable, people can and do change! Research backs this up. Counselors are sworn to secrecy, to keep parents out of the loop. They can encourage a gender confused child to socially and medically transition without a parent’s knowledge. Perhaps our governor should consider what Texas is doing; putting chaplains in our schools! All who read this may want to contact him and ask about this!
Of course he is interested, part of the globalist agenda, marxist training- get kids away from parental influence. Bill still thinks he is a christian conservative. How can he be so confused? He must have sold himself somehow and now lives in blindness…
I have mixed feelings about this, but there is a huge mental health crisis—parental influence does not always lead to positive outcomes.
Have you got a better idea?